Monday, January 21, 2008

Keep Our What? Off of Your What????

Today was the annual Walk for Life West Coast, in which courageous marchers remind the people of San Francisco that unborn humans are being deprived of the most important of their civil rights, the right to life (Hat tip: Mark Shea).

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, a decision that has deprived more than 48 million Americans of their right to be born. This Supreme Court abomination turned the phrase "miscarriage of justice" from a cliche into an ugly reality, a reality that still claims the lives of 4,000 American children each day.

It is also, undoubtedly, the 35th anniversary of the tiresome pro-abortion slogan, two of which were quoted in the article linked above; as a public service I will now deconstruct both of them, so that the foolish abortion aficionados who either applaud feticide for their own foul purposes or who get paid by Planned Death to hold pro-abortion signs will think twice before carrying either one of these ridiculous, shopworn, dreary, unimaginative phrases lettered onto a piece of poster board at any time in the future.

The first, of course, is that old classic would-be-clever line: Don't like abortion? Don't have one! The smug fans of baby-killing think this is so witty, but it's easy to show that it's just...not. Let me illustrate with a few examples:

And so on. Abortion isn't like a plate of cookies that you can either accept or decline with no consequences to anyone but yourself; it's the direct and intentional killing of an innocent unborn human. The innocent victim is palpably overlooked in this trite and silly slogan; ignored is the fact that when a woman has an abortion, there's another person involved, and that person, her own child, always ends up dead. I suggest, as an alternative poster for the pro-life activist, a drawing like this: a picture of a concentration camp beside the words Don't like holocausts? and then, beneath it, a picture of an abortion mill with tiny crosses representing the victims, and the words Don't start one.

The second slogan that shows up with depressing regularity is the abysmally stupid Keep your rosaries off of our ovaries! which combines complete nonsense with a little light Catholic-bashing, not unlike Planned Death's equally stupid attempt to sell 'holiday' greeting cards. This slogan is actually the most blatantly idiotic of all the pro-abortion inanities out there, because it fails to make any sense not only theologically, but also biologically and just plain logically as well.

In the first place, while plenty of Catholics pray the rosary for the end of legalized baby-killing on demand here in the good old USA, no Catholic anywhere has ever attempted to prevent an abortion by placing his or her rosary on (or even over the vicinity of) the ovaries of a woman seeking abortion. The image of someone taking this action does, indeed, conjure up the use of the rosary in certain types of horror movies in which it is being used as a physical weapon against demonic forces; the fact that the Planned Death types would come up with a slogan that hearkens back to such images tells us more about them than they would like us to know.

Even as a symbolic statement, though, this is utterly ludicrous. Catholics don't seek the end of abortion because of some sectarian beliefs of ours; Catholics, like other rational and intelligent humans, understand that abortion is the direct and intentional killing of an innocent unborn human, and we oppose it for the same reasons we oppose other forms of murder.

From a biological standpoint this slogan irks me, too. In an abortion, the abortionist is paid by the mother to kill her baby. This procedure doesn't generally involve the ovaries at all, unless you are referring to the ovaries of the developing female human child which will be torn apart and discarded along with the rest of her; but no pro-life person, Catholic or not, is even remotely interested in the ovaries of the woman who is having her child killed. Granted, we wish the mother would respect her own body and its reproductive properties far more than she actually does, and we hope that she will stop the destructive promiscuity that has led her to seek the death of her child, but just how working to end abortion equates putting anything at all (let alone a rosary) on to the woman's ovaries is beyond me. Of course, the real reason the ovaries got brought up in the first place was most likely because someone was unsuccessfully looking for a cute rhyme for 'rosary' to work in the Catholic-bashing angle.

So a poster for a pro-lifer to use to counteract this idiotic slogan would be something like this: under a picture of a developing baby in utero (perhaps one of those lovely 3-D or 4-D ultrasound images) "If you can't see that this baby deserves to live, chances are you still think that rosaries rhymes with ovaries."

To all the brave pro-life marchers who have taken place in marches this weekend, or who will be participating in the March for Life in Washington, D.C. tomorrow, God bless! My rosary tonight will be for your safety, for your witness, and for the end to abortion in America.

3 comments:

Tears and prayersfor you todayO America!What will you reapas the unmothered weepand shuffle, empty-armed,and soundless crya dirgewho should sing a lullabye?O babes so scientifically unbodied,for mercy flyto God Most Highand plea for us who weep for you.

I just came across your blog, and just wanted to put in my two-cents worth... I am a single 28 year old woman who has a very hard time with the thought that someone would not want a child that they have concieved, no matter what the circumstances. I want a child of my own so bad! I won't have one outside of marriage, so at this time it seems that I'll never have children. I would gladly adopt as many children as I possibly could, if these women would carry their children full term. I know there are other women out there who feel the same way. Thanks for your post. Maybe America will listen.

Follow Me

About Me

I'm Catholic. Period. Not to be confused with "I'm Catholic, but..."
I'm conservative. Not Republican. Yes, there is a difference.
I'm a homeschooling mom. No, I don't know any good crafts. Crafts at my house end with something glued somewhere it shouldn't be. All my art is abstract, if 'lumpy' is synonymous with 'abstract.'
I write because...well, I like this quote from Mason Cooley, "Writing about an idea frees me of it. Thinking about it is a circle of repetitions."

My Fiction Writing Blog

Contact Me

As of March 20, 2009, this Site has chosen to employ the following policy: All correspondence may be blogged unless you specifically request otherwise. Please feel free to continue to send me private letters; just begin your email with the word "Private" or place the word "Private" or the letters DNB (do not blog) in the subject line of your email to me. Every effort will be made to respect your privacy when you request it.

Saint Michael the Archangel,defend us in battle;be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,by the power of God,thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spiritswho prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.Amen.

Don't Make Retail Employees Work on Thanksgiving!

A Prayer Of Spiritual Communion

My Jesus,I believe that Youare present in the Most Holy Sacrament.I love You above all things,and I desire to receive You into my soul.Since I cannot at this momentreceive You sacramentally,come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.